The Modern Girl’s Guide to Organic Kitchen Gardening
Part 4

It is important to practice crop rotation and implement cover crops once it’s time to start planting, as mentioned in the ‘Planning the Modern Girl’s Organic Kitchen Garden – Part 1’ .

Crop rotation is an important practice for your soil’s fertility, it helps to ensure a healthy balance among the most important nutrients, N-P-K. When shopping in Lowes, Home Depot or local garden center, you’ve probably seen the vast amount of fertilizer brands and nutrient cocktails, which are labeled with three numbers. These numbers represent the ratios of nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) and potassium (K).  So if you see a 15-15-15 fertilizer, all three nutrients are present in equal proportions; but if you see a 21-7-14 blend, you know it has more nitrogen (21), a small amount of phosphorous (7) and an average or medium amount of potassium (14). While all three nutrients are important, they each have very particular roles in plant growth. Nitrogen is essential growth of the plants’ foliage. A healthy dose results in lush, green leaves and stems, while chlorosis (yellowing of leaf color) is often a tell-tale sign of deficiency. Phosphorous is responsible for stimulating root growth, flowers, fruit and seed production; and stunted growth is a signal that this nutrient is low. Potassium helps plants resist disease, withstand bad weather and develop strong stems.

And all this 8^th grade chemistry is relevant once again, because N-P-K (nitrogen, phosphorous & potassium) are at the root of crop rotations. Nitrogen is easily leached from the soil, or disappears easily, phosphorous remains relatively steady while potassium also leaches from the soil, but not as quickly as nitrogen.

Start the previous fall by adding compost and decomposed manure, which is rich in nitrogen, and some phosphorous and potassium amendments according to your soil test recommendations. Then the first year, plant brassicas and leaf crops, which eat up lots of nitrogen. In the same bed year two, grow fruiting crops, which require generous amounts of phosphorous to set flowers and fruits. Root crops, planted in the third year, are addicted to potassium, requiring very small amounts of nitrogen and phosphorous which have been mostly used up in previous two years. And finally plant your legumes, the beans and peas, in year four. These plants extract nitrogen from the air, store it in the roots which decompose in the soil, generating more nitrogen for the following year. Legumes are always a good idea – they add organic matter to your soil … yum, yum, yum for your soil!

Now, if you are rotating your vegetable crops every year among 4 beds, you only need to amend the soil of one bed, next year’s leaf crops. Send out a soil sample for testing and amendment recommendations before adding lime, rock phosphate or greensand. Add a layer of compost to your entire garden annually and if you aren’t cover cropping, include decomposed manure as well.

Cover crops, also known as green manure, should be employed once vegetables are harvested and die off.  Wheat is a good cover plant for leaf crops, rye for fruit, buckwheat, rye and clover for root crops and alfalfa, vetch and clover for your legume crops. Use these plants to fill open space in your garden beds, they reduce weeds, add nitrogen and get composed right into the soil. Who wouldn’t want to grow these babies?!

All this information is well and good, but being familiar with your garden year will help make you even more successful! Useful Tip: Keep a garden diary and make notes of when frost occurs, times to sow and transplant, which varieties you grow and how long it takes your crops to grow and mature. This information will prove invaluable for coming years!

Hope you have enjoyed my series on Organic Kitchen Gardening as much as I have had writing them! I’ll be doing some more posting on particular herbs, fruits and vegetables as the growing season gets underway …

Spring get ready, here I come!

The Modern Girl’s Guide to Organic Kitchen Gardening:
Part 3

Basics are fundamental to a healthy organic kitchen garden. Sowing, watering, weeding and controlling pests and disease are important growing practices that every modern garden girl should know.

Sowing, or planting, seed is the very core of your garden’s plant life, and as such it is a very good idea to start with fresh seed and compost every year. So if you have been saving some luscious lettuce seed varieties for more than a year, check the seed packet for the expiration date – they all have one – to make sure they are still fresh enough to grow! If you are unsure about the virility of your seeds, do a quick test by laying your seeds on a moist paper towel and check to see how many germinate. If only half begin growing, just sow more seeds than you normally would to ensure germination. A variety of seed trays and pots can be used to start growing; many biodegradable and environmentally friendly products are available at your local garden center. If you are reusing last year’s pots and trays, give them a thorough soaking and wash in a 9:1 mixture of water and bleach respectively.

Non-peat based compost is a better choice for sowing seeds since peat is a limited, non-renewable resource. Never use regular compost to start seeds, it carries most nutrients in a level too high for seeds and seedling, and the young roots will burn. A good starting mix should have good drainage, low fertility and a fine texture. To get a head start on your garden you can begin sowing slow growing and frost-tender crops indoors or under glass. Root crops such as carrots, radishes and beets, do not transplanting well from pot to ground, and should be grown in situ, or sown directly into the ground. So for those plants, follow seed packet recommendations and use weather as your guide. A soil thermometer can also be used to determine when it is time to plant outdoors; insert the thermometer 2-4 inches into the ground in early morning, and when you soil has been consistently 45⁰F for a week it is time to plant. Again, seed packets usually make recommendations, but a good rule of thumb for vegetable seed planting depth is ½ inch deep; he only exceptions being beans (1½”), peas (1¼”) and squash and cucumbers (³/₄”).  As a neat trick, use string and a measuring stick as a guide to create super straight crop rows!

Watering. Regular watering is required for seeds and seedling to thrive. The best time of day to water is early morning and late afternoon, particularly if watering from above. Watch your local forecast and take the weather into account.  You won’t need to be watering as much if you’ve had heavy rain for a few days. As a rule, water such that your soil is regularly moist, similar to a wrung out sponge. As your crops mature, base your watering amount on the plant’s individual needs. By individual needs, I am referring to leaf vs. fruiting vegetables. Crops grown for their leaves need a more consistent watering throughout their growth cycle, whereas fruiting vegetables like tomatoes and peas require more water as the plants begin to set flower and fruit. There are many ways to water: hand watering, drip irrigation, and sprinklers and soaker hoses. If you live up North, soaker hoses usually aren’t worth the trouble, as they are typically removed during the winter so they don’t burst and crack in the cold weather.

Mulching goes together with both watering and weed control. Mulching keeps the soil cool, conserve moisture and reduce cultivation needs while keeping weeds at bay by covering their light source. Mulches are available organically or inorganically. Inorganic mulches include carpet, black plastic and stone; and the organic alternatives are bark chips, grass clippings, pine needles, straw or compost. Organic mulches are better since many have organic matter and will decompose in the soil over time, improving it’s structure.

Now for the pests …. And weeds are indeed a type of pest, and while there are many difference definitions of weeds, my favorite is: A weed is any plant growing where you do not want it to grow! Besides interfering with the feng shui of your garden design and layout, they compete and take away resources like water, nutrients, space and light. As an organic gardener you do not want to use chemicals on your garden so the best method is to remove by hand the offenders! Yes, this is time consuming, but totally worthwhile! While weeding should be done systematically, the best time to remove weeds is when they are seeds or before they set flower. For perennial weeds, this means that this will usually have to be done a few times before you are finally rid of the perpetrator. And it is best to remove ALL parts of the weed, both above and beneath the soil line. Most weeds have very strong regeneration capabilities, so be sure to remove the entire plant, roots and all. If you have a lot of time before your fantasy garden comes to fruition and have an area you won’t be using for a season or two, cover the weed-infested area with carpet or thick, black plastic. And in a few months to a year most weeds will have dies due to lack of light.

For specific pest and disease problems I refer to The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Pest and Disease Control, by Fern Marshall Bradley, Barbara W. Ellis and Deborah L. Martin and Great Garden Formulas, by Joan Benjamin and Deborah L. Martin.

In next week’s edition, I will begin discussing particular vegetable crops; how to grow them and how they add to your Organic Kitchen Garden!

Happy St. Valentine’s Day!
Love, Roses and Quotes

On the day of romance and love I want to share with you some of my favorite quotes about love from some of my favorite authors…

It was Gertrude Jekyll who once said, “The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies.” And I must say that I wholeheartedly agree ~

“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. ”
- Emily Brontë

“A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.”
- Ingrid Bergman

“To love another person is to see the face of God.”
- Victor Hugo in  Les Misérables

Life is a flower of which love is the honey.
- Victor Hugo

Wishing you and your loved ones a lovely St. Valentines Day!

The Down and Dirty Gardener:
Force It To Flower

Mid-winter is the absolute height of the indoor bulb-forcing season. So if you are one of those gardeners who can’t wait until the start of spring, why not force some pretty bulbs into bloom during the winter? Forcing is a gardening technique to induce bulbs and branches to bloom indoors in an accelerated time frame.

Hardy bulbs, known for being zoned for their native, temperate regions, such as tulips, hyacinths, narcissus, small irises (Iris danfordiae) and crocuses; are required to go through specific periods of dormancy, or cold weather, in order to rest and prepare to bloom. The objective in hardy bulb forcing is to simulate the three seasons including autumn, winter and early spring.  Exposing the potted bulbs to cold weather (40⁰F) develops roots imitating the fall and winter, while the shorter cool (50⁰F) period allows the foliage and stems to grow and the warming period (60⁰F), reminiscent of spring, for the bulb to finally bloom. It is best to buy your hardy bulbs from a reliable supplier, and check them for unpleasant smells, most likely indicating rot, or sad looking yellow sprouts. Bulb descriptions that identify plants as “early bloomers” with “strong or short stems”, indicates that those are the best bulb species for forcing.

“Potting-up” ideally should be done mid-October for February and March blooms. Supplies needed consist of pots with drainage holes, new potting soil, gravel or pebbles, sand and labels. A helpful tip on using clay pots (a personal favorite): soak them in water first so they don’t wick out all the water. Then fill the pots with gravel or pebbles at the bottom over the drainage hole, and fill pots with a soil and sand mixture. The mixture should be 3:1, meaning three-parts potting soil to one-part sand, the additional sand being an important component since bulbs require quick drainage. Plant bulbs close together, but not touching (pointy side up of course!), at the recommended depth, cover with soil and water thoroughly. Be sure to mark and label each pot, then place in a cold, dark spot for approximately 10-16 weeks then move to a cool, light location for an additional 2-4 weeks; time dependent on species. Keep in mind that not enough water is the cause of 90% of all forcing failures, therefore water pots regularly during these periods. Once your hardy bulbs have bloomed and been enjoyed – compost them. Oftentimes these bulbs take several years to rest and rejuvenate enough to bloom again; it is better to order new bulbs next August.

Tender bulbs, native to the southern hemisphere, for example: oxalis, cyclamen, callas, freesias and clivias, naturally bloom from January through March. These bulbs are much easier to force since they are blooming according to their normal timetable, blooming in winter and resting in summer.  Tenders do not get composed, and their dormancy requirements are usually basic and usually arrive with individual instructions. Early autumn is the time to pot-up your bulbs, following the directions on the package with respect to planting depth, pot size, water and spacing.  During summer leave pots out of direct sunlight in a warm spot, only watering once the first shoot arrives. Once the flower blooms and fades, stop watering, move pots away from direct sunlight and when foliage dies off completely, cut it down to the soil and follow the original instructions to help induce dormancy.

A great sport for the seasoned forcer, is to force branches. Plants such as forsythia (Abeliophyllum distichum,), quince, witch hazel (Hamamelis spp.), pussy willow (Salix melanostachys), staghorn sumac (Rhus thyphina) make wonderful forced-branch specimens. Wait until at least 6 weeks of cold weather has passed before cutting branches to force indoors. The later in the season the branch is cut, the faster the branch will force out leaves and blooms; and cutting on a warm day makes for a better force. A good forcing tip is to soak branches for two hours in a tub, this moisturizes and loosens bud scales to gently wake up the branch. Arrange branches in vases filled with room-temperature water and trim an inch off the end. Usually it takes 3-4 weeks to force branches to bloom, so take a few cuttings each week to insure you get a staggered bloom display.  Some species such as wild cherry make lovely indoor, winter displays and bittersweet will develop pretty, little twirls!

So bring out your inner indoor-gardener, force some bulbs, start planning your forcing calendar or exchange your bulbs and branches with friends and have some winter fun!

The Modern Girl’s Guide to ‘Digging’ her Organic Kitchen Garden:
Part 2

Now that you have had your soil tested for your organic kitchen garden and know what kind of soil you are working with, it’s time to dig! It’s easy to get overwhelmed when reading what you ‘should be’ doing and the ‘correct method’ for doing it. For instance, there are a number of different methods and theories about digging …. double-digging, single-digging, till, no-till, etc. that make it much more confusing than it needs to be!

Before seeding or planting vegetables the soil needs to be prepared, and this applies to garden beds as well as containers for the urban gardener.  Select a sunny spot in your yard, or patio, that is sheltered from the harsh weather with good soil. If you have enough forethought, it is best to prepare your soil in the fall, so it has time to rest, otherwise start in early spring after the ground has thawed.  For those of you lucky to live up in the New England area be sure to wait until after mud season (that time when the snow is melting and your entire yard has become soggy and water-logged), it is not good to dig when the soil is wet or frozen!

When creating a garden bed for the first time, dig one spade’s (the big garden shovel) depth into the ground and flip over.  This is a good time to add any required amendments (recommended from your soil test) and organic matter. Compost, well rotted manure (never fresh!), decomposed leaves, cardboard, newspaper, straw or a combination any of the above are good sources of organic matter.  You can either spread it over the garden bed and fork it in, or add while digging your bed.  If your soil is extremely poor or you live on bedrock, (as many of us do in Maine) raised beds and containers are a good alternative.

Raised beds are usually 3-5 feet wide, of any length, in which the soil is raised (6 in. to waist high) above the ground. The bed is generally made of wood, rock, or concrete blocks, and can have hoops attached. They improve plant yield since they can be filled with compost and nutritious soil. Avoiding soil compaction is another advantage of a raised bed; since you garden from the side and never walk on the soil, it becomes a more hospitable environment for your vegetables.

After your initial soil preparation, keep the digging to a minimum in the following years, as the continual turning over of soil will destroy it’s structure and it’s ability to hold and provide nutrients to your plants. If you maintain healthy soil and garden beds soil microorganisms and worms will do most of the work for you! Soil microbes and earthworms create airspaces in the soil for roots to spread, improves nutrient availability, breaks down organic matter and protects against disease. So next year when you are planting and find your soil riddled with earthworms, you know you have done something right!

Cover crops, also known as green manure, are another way to improve the soil structure and fertility. Once your vegetable crops have been harvested, sow some over-wintering cover crops in their place and let them grow. Green manures are a wonderful improvement mechanism; by growing them in the soil you will later be growing vegetables in, it bulks up the soil with it’s root system, keeps weeds out, maintains the soil’s moisture content and adds nitrogen. Nitrogen is one of the most important nutrients and is responsible for your plants’ lush foliage and stem growth, a bonus byproduct courtesy of your cover crops! Good autumn cover crops include annual and winter rye, ryegrass, oats, clover and alfalfa to name a few.

Now that I’ve discussed digging more than I ever meant to, I think the next installment of the Modern Girl’s Organic Kitchen Garden series will focus on the basics of growing your garden! Stop by next Wednesday to find out what garden tasks you should be carrying out and tips for creating your fantasy kitchen garden!

‘I Love Being Green’ Friday

Since green is my favorite color, Kermit my favorite frog and plants being my favorite thing I think I want to take some time to breath in the green –  I’ve had my fill of winter & white for today.

I just adore my little Senecio herreianus, also known to  many people as the ‘String of Pearls’ or ‘String of Beads’ succulent. This little baby is so easy to grow, I keep mine on my window sill to give her some filtered sun, although theses Strings will tolerate full sun if they have to.

Propagating some more Strings of Pearls for next year … During the spring and summer take a small stem-cutting from a friend’s plant, pin it in some good potting soil, water regularly (waiting until the soil dries out before watering) and by you will see it’s lovely, white flowers at the end of the stems! It is recommended to fertilize once a month with a low-nitrogen fertilizer from spring to fall, but this fast and furious little plant will often bloom without the extra food. But the one thing is should not do without is division and a new pot every other year.

I also love my maindenhair fern, known to many as the Adiantum raddianum. This fern does not do well in direct sun, preferring filtered light and shade, and requires high humidity so it is often difficult to keep for long periods of time. So if you are up for the challenge; repot every spring, water regularly-never allowing the soil to fully dry out between waterings-and mist daily to simulate the required humidity. This fern is worth the extra hassle to enjoy the it’s delicate leaflets and shiny black stems!

And I believe very home should have at least one classic Boston fern (Nephrolepis exaltata). This big guy is pretty tough, just keep away from direct sunlight, water regularly (do I sense a pattern?) and feed with a low-nitrogen fertilizer twice a month from spring to fall. And it’s super easy to share this plant with friends – in early spring look for the small plantlets leafing out from the base of the plant, pick out and repot them!

As my bulbs begin to sprout roots an its shoots emerge, I definitely think that that groundhog is wrong, and spring isn’t another six months away … or is that just some wishful thinking?

The Modern Girl’s Guide for Planning a Kitchen Garden:
Part I

While I love those traditional, walled, British kitchen gardens, they do not lend themselves to the modern garden girl on the go. That is why it is important to plan ahead!

Kitchen gardens, or potagers, very popular of the Victorian era, are a great source for local, pesticide-free food and look lovely as well. But before you begin ripping up your lawn to make a home for your new soon-to-be vegetable garden, ask yourself some questions first: what homegrown foods would you like to eat? Are these vegetables locally available? Which foods are more cost-effective for you to grow and which are better to buy? How much space and time are you willing to dedicate to your new organic garden? Do you prefer an edible landscape or a purely functional garden space?

Once it is decided which plants and vegetables you will be growing, you need to determine where the garden will be positioned.  An optimal location will have at least 6 hours of sunlight, face south on a slight incline and have rich, loamy well-drained soil.  Before you start planting you need to test your soil. The importance of soil testing cannot be over-estimated! Your local cooperative extension will test your soil for a nominal fee, and send you an analysis, which includes pH (7-7.5 is ideal for most vegetables), contaminants, organic matter, nutrient levels and recommendations for soil improvement.

Although the first time gardener is excited to plant his or her seeds and seedlings, it is crucial to remember to practice crop rotation. The four main vegetable groups (fruit crops, root crops, brassicas & leaf crops, legumes & potatoes) should be planted in four separate beds, and each year they should rotate.  By practicing a 4-year crop rotation cycle you will help prevent pest and disease build up, but also avoid the stripping of nutrients. When planting the same crops in the same location, plants will drain the soil of particular high-demand nutrients. Crop rotation improves nutrient efficiency, and therefore less soil amendments are required the following year. Also, by having stronger, nutrient-rich plants, you will have less need for insect and disease controls.

A good garden crop rotation plan will keep your organic kitchen garden filled with juicy and delicious food throughout the year and many growing seasons to come.

Stayed tuned for next Wednesday’s installment of the Modern Garden Girl’s Guide to Kitchen Gardening where I will be talking about the basics of organic kitchen gardening and garden maintenance!

Spring is in the Air

We’ve  had a mild winter up in Maine (knocking on wood) so far …

But I still cannot believe how warm its been! Going outside with just a jacket reminds me that Spring is not too far away …

So today I am going to leave you with a few photos that remind us that spring and summer are already on their way!

Procrastination At It’s Finest

I am supposed to be finishing up an article and working on an assignment …

Obviously I took a little break …

I kind of felt like a sea urchin wandering around Higgins Beach in the middle of the day.

But it was just a too-beautiful, too-warm (yes it was almost 49 F) and too-sunny day to stay indoors!  So I decided to take a walk (since I didn’t have enough to do) on the beach and thoroughly enjoy my procrastination … now I’m inspired to get back to work!

Fuchsia for the Future

As the holidays wind down and we snuggle in for the long, cold winters here in Maine, the lack of outdoor garden tasks makes us wish spring was approaching just a bit sooner. So once you have read your seed catalogues from cover to cover, why not pursue another garden calling?

A favorite gardening pastime is the preparation of annuals or tender perennials, which have temporarily become houseplants, to go back outside come spring. Fuchsias are considered to be an annual up in Maine, but can be grown year-round in Zone 4 with a little extra work.  It is best to start with a half-hardy fuchsia species like F. mangellanica, or a hybrid of the upright shrub.

Usually fuchsias are planted or placed outside in the spring after the threat of frost is gone, and will bloom almost continually from the spring through autumn.  In the summer, fuchsias have quite the reputation for being finicky; preferring filtered or indirect light, moist, well-drained soil and cool day and nighttime temperatures. These plants are quite particular and may not bloom if night temperatures rise above 65⁰F. Deadheading and weekly applications of a water soluble 20-20-20 fertilizer will further encourage blooming.

While fuchsia will tolerate temperatures down to 41⁰F, it is important to bring them indoors after the first light frost of the season. During the winter, fuchsia craves a dormancy period in which the leaves fall, a natural progression in its life cycle. Cut the plant back by a third, and store in a frost-free, sheltered location such as an unheated basement, attached garage or greenhouse. It is important to reduce water significantly during this period, water only sparingly, just enough so that the soil never completely dries out.

In late winter or early spring it is time to bring the plant out of dormancy. Move the fuchsia to a spot with indirect light and where nighttime temperatures are still below 65⁰F. Begin watering your fuchsia so the soil is consistently moist and restart the 20-20-20 fertilizer regimen.

Fuchsias can be propagated by seed or by cuttings. Seed germination should begin in late winter and takes approximately 3 weeks. If seeds are started early enough and grown in warm conditions it should flower in its first year. On the other hand, propagation by cuttings is almost always guaranteed.

Softwood cuttings can be taken at any time of year and will usually root in 10-20 days. The nodal stem-tip, single node or an intermodal stem can all be used as cutting material. Semi-ripe cuttings should be taken from mid-summer to early autumn. The key to producing a good cutting specimen is to pinch out the new growth to a pair of leaves just above the last set of buds. Hardwood cutting are taken from late autumn to late winter.

When propagating by cuttings, take a 3-inch portion of the fleshy, growing tip of the plant and dip the base in a hormone rooting compound (optional), then insert into plug trays filled with a mixture of seed compost, sand and vermiculite. Be sure that none of the leaves touch either the compost or another plant.  Place uncovered seed trays on a heat mat or propagation bench that maintains a temperature of 64⁰F. Once the cuttings have rooted, pot them up and get ready for spring!

Fuchsias are known to symbolize good taste, which is bit apropos as anyone who plants, grows or just enjoys their lively and lovely colors obviously has some good taste of their own. So if the snow and chilly temperatures are keeping you bundled up indoors,  begin thinking about how you can brighten up your garden this spring  with some fuchsia. Start by preparing your plant and giving them that nice long dormancy period they are pining for. And get ready for the warmer weather by propagating some new fuchsias while you are at it!

I hope you enjoyed my first Down and Dirty Gardener article! Working on next month’s – it should be out the first week of February!